BT Call Blocker Phone - Scam or Coincidence?

[Smeeton A Quiet Boy]

Ok, so I used to get a number of nuisance calls a week. Enough to give me the hump so I invested in one of those BT call blocker phones.

From the moment I installaed it, the number of nuisance calls went through the roof - now getting about 5-10 a day.

And here's the thing - because they're international numbers the block button on the phone doesn't work!

I can't believe this is a coincidence & I don't think I can just go back to a regular phone cos I've well and truly broken the seal now .

[alreadypacked]

Maybe they have hacked the BT blocker list, or as soon as they realise they are on the blocker list they have sold your number to the international market.

[DimPrawn]

BT =

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BT_Group#Divisions

Beginning in 2010 the UK intelligence community investigated Huawei, the Chinese supplier of BT's new fibre infrastructure with increasing urgency after the USA, Canada and Australia prevented the company from operating in their countries.[104] Although BT had notified the UK government in 2003 of Huawei's interest in their £10bn network upgrade contract, they did not raise the security implications as BT failed to explain that the Chinese company would have unfettered access to critical infrastructure.[105] On 16 December 2012 the prime minister David Cameron was supplied with an in-depth report indicating that the intelligence services had very grave doubts regarding Huawei, and that UK governmental, military, and civilian privacy may have been under serious threat.[106]

On 7 June 2013, British lawmakers concluded that BT should not have allowed Huawei access to the UK's communications network without ministerial oversight, saying they were 'deeply shocked' that BT did not inform government that they were allowing Huawei and ZTE, both with ties to the Chinese military, unfettered access to critical national systems. Furthermore, ministers discovered that the agency with the responsibility to ensure Chinese equipment and code was threat-free was entirely staffed by Huawei employees. Subsequently, parliamentarians confirmed that in case of an attack on the UK there was nothing that could be done to stop Chinese infiltration.[107]

In early 2008 it was announced that BT had entered into a contract (along with Virgin Media and TalkTalk) with the spyware company Phorm (responsible under their 121Media guise for the Apropos rootkit)[112][113] to intercept and analyse their users' click-stream data and sell the anonymised aggregate information as part of Phorm's OIX advertising service.[114][115] The practice, known as "behavioural targeting" and condemned by critics as "data pimping", came under intense fire from various internet communities and other interested-parties who believe that the interception of data without the consent of users and web site owners is illegal under UK law (RIPA).[116][117][118][119] At a more fundamental level, many have argued that the ISPs and Phorm have no right to sell a commodity (a user's data, and the copyright content of web sites) to which they have no claim of ownership. In response to questions about Phorm and the interception of data by the Webwise system Sir Tim Berners-Lee, credited as the creator of the World Wide Web protocol, indicated his disapproval of the concept and is quoted as saying of his data and web history:

[swamp]

Why do you still have a landline?

[Smeeton A Quiet Boy]

BT =

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BT_Group#Divisions

Blimey - I was only kind of half joking but it does seem entirely feasible that there is some spyware on my phone that has pinged my number off to god knows where and consequently I'm now getting inundated with nuisance calls.

It does seem strange that it went from about 5 a week to 10 a day as soon as I switched phones.

Makes you wonder what all this other smart gadgetry in the house is doing doesn't it?

Anyhow - I can choose to block all incoming calls and the caller has to identify themselves before I accept the call. Problem with this is I have a lot of very non tech savvy relatives (and friends) so I have to make sure I add them all to the accept numbers list first

What sort of a world are we living in?!

[washed up contractor]

Ok, so I used to get a number of nuisance calls a week. Enough to give me the hump so I invested in one of those BT call blocker phones.

From the moment I installaed it, the number of nuisance calls went through the roof - now getting about 5-10 a day.

And here's the thing - because they're international numbers the block button on the phone doesn't work!

I can't believe this is a coincidence & I don't think I can just go back to a regular phone cos I've well and truly broken the seal now .

Should have saved your money and just enrolled with BT's free Call Protect. The nuisance calls have all but stopped. Used to get loads and while a few odd ones get through you can add them to your list manually. And it blocks international calls.

[WTFH]

If you buy a phone with call blocker built in, then that solves it - ALL calls are blocked unless you add the number to an approved list on the phone itself. When someone rings through who is not on the list, they hear a message which instructs them to press 1 to get through to you. If they don’t press it, they don’t get through. Most of the spammers are on autodiallers, so won’t get anywhere.

[Hobosapien]

Why do you still have a landline?

For fibre broadband. Are the 3g/4g/5g offerings genuine competitors these days or still a way to go to be as reliable and quick? Would love to ditch the landline altogether and use mifi or some such solution, but not yet convinced it will be as good an experience overall.

I don't get any nuisance calls as I have no phone plugged into the landline.

I have a second 'burner' mobile for randoms that I change about once a year to reset the number of people I'm not bothered about hearing from back to zero. They can email me if they want anything.

Only family and close friends have my main mobile number so easy to manage. So if anyone's tried calling me and can't get through, you're not on the list so please sod off.

[Smeeton A Quiet Boy]

If you buy a phone with call blocker built in, then that solves it - ALL calls are blocked unless you add the number to an approved list on the phone itself. When someone rings through who is not on the list, they hear a message which instructs them to press 1 to get through to you. If they don’t press it, they don’t get through. Most of the spammers are on autodiallers, so won’t get anywhere.

I know, and I did refer to that in my post above.

Anyhow - I can choose to block all incoming calls and the caller has to identify themselves before I accept the call. Problem with this is I have a lot of very non tech savvy relatives (and friends) so I have to make sure I add them all to the accept numbers list first

[DaveB]

Didn't know sock puppets could use phones, or are you "hands free"?